Time After Time
by TheWickedWitchOfOz
Summary: The first time Fiyero says 'I love you' is not the last time they saw each other. AU Bookverse Elphiyero.
1. Chapter 1

**AN:** for anyone confused by the summary, in the book Elphaba tells Fiyero three times that she loves him before he reciprocates. THe quote below is when he realises he loves her (long before he says it)

* * *

More than anything else he wanted to walk the streets of the Emerald City with Elphaba – there was no more beautiful place to be in love, especially at dusk as the shop lights went on, golden against the blue-purple evening sky. He had never been in love before, he now saw. It humbled him. It scared him. He couldn't bear it when their forced absences went four or five days. – Wicked, City of Emeralds (page 193)

* * *

_But she woke up just then, and in the moonlight covered herself with a blanket. She smiled at him drowsily and called him "Yero, my hero," and that melted his heart._

He slid into bed next to her, trying to keep her awake with delicate kisses on her neck and shoulder. She protested sleepily, tried to pull away with a muttered comment, closed her eyes firmly and refused to react. He gave up on waking her up and snuggled closer instead. She mumbled for him to "hurry and up and go to sleep, I have to be up early," with those words he knew she'd have left by the time he woke up – no matter how lightly he thought he was sleeping he never heard her unless she deliberately made a noise.

"Will I see you tomorrow night?" he asked quietly, sometimes she would tell him if he didn't ask but he'd found himself alone with Malky more than once.

"Not tomorrow night," she said, after a moment's hesitation. "The night after."

* * *

The next two days passed in an agonisingly slow fashion but the sun finally began to set on the second day and he made his way to Elphaba's home, bearing two bottles of wine and a small basket of food.

"Such a bountiful offering from a pauper prince," she remarked, with an expressive quirk of an eyebrow. "I hope you didn't beggar your people to produce such a feast."

"Not at all, it was a gift from a gentlemen wishing to discuss a trade agreement. I thought I'd share, if you haven't eaten already?"

He was concerned as she lit the lamps and he looked more closely at her. Her face was drawn, there was some emotion in her eyes he couldn't fathom, and he wondered if she'd eaten since he left two days before.

"I haven't," she replied simply and went to put out her chipped crockery, leaving him to wonder if he had only imagined the shadows in her eyes. The cat slipped in through the window, meowing as he smelled the food in the basket.

"I should warn you," he said. "I haven't checked the contents of the basket but form the smell there's definitely some Gillikin cheese in here and, unless your familiar over there is fond of smelly cheese, some sort of meat as well."

"Malky used to live on the streets," she remarked in response. "He'll eat anything he can get. Is there any bread in there?"

"A whole loaf of it," he replied, setting the food out on a cloth draped over one of the crates. "Butter and some apples as well."

"A veritable feast for one of us," she said, alluding to the fact he stayed somewhere in the richer part of town despite the Arjiki people's lack of material wealth.

"I'd rather eat this meal with you than all the fancy food in the world with them," he replied, quickly offering her a drink to avoid being forced to elaborate.

Elphaba refused to touch the small joint of roast meat or the Gillikin cheese so Fiyero shared them both with the cat while she ate bread and butter. They finished one bottle of the wine together, with Fiyero taking the larger share of it.

"I missed you," he said, when they'd eaten, pulling her close to him for a kiss as he'd been wanting to since she opened the door for him.

"I know exactly what you missed," she replied cynically. Fiyero pulled away, hurt by the insinuation.

"Well if you're not in the mood…maybe I should leave."

"I didn't say I didn't miss you as well, dearie," she replied and pulled him back towards her with a singularly feminine smile.

* * *

Later that night they lay together in the moonlight, blanket tangled around their lower limbs, not quite ready to sleep. Fiyero was pleased to see that Elphaba's eyes didn't look as haunted as they had earlier and Elphaba was, despite herself, pleased that it had been so easy to coax him into staying with her. At this particularly moment he seemed quite occupied with running his fingers through her hair and examining the texture.

"So beautiful," he whispered, almost scared of disturbing the momentary peace between them.

"You're drunk," she accused him, irritably snatching her hair away from his hands.

"Definitely," he agreed seriously, it had been very expensive wine after all. "But that's not what made me think that, just what made me say it."

"Clearly you need to sleep it off," she huffed at him and started rearranging the blanket to cover them both properly.

"I love you."

The blatant non sequitur startled Elphaba, who had been expecting some light-hearted response to her semi-serious suggestion. She stared at him, wide-eyed with shock, before responding harshly.

"Don't!"

"Don't what?" he asked in confusion. "Don't say I love you? I didn't mean to say it like that, too much wine I guess. Elphaba?"

"Don't **love** me!" she protested harshly. "I won't stand for it!"

"I don't understand," he replied and she could see he was genuinely muddled by the wine he'd consumed earlier.

"I'll tell you in the morning," she said softly. "When the hangover wears off."

He smiled sleepily, that smile that made her feel girlishly weak-kneed, and snuggled down under the blanket.

"Goodnight Elphaba."

"Goodnight Fiyero."

She waited until he was definitely deeply asleep, she could always tell when he was dreaming, then quickly packed her most important things away into a bag thinking ironically of her boast when they first met again.

_I can pick up and be away in thirty seconds_, she had said to him on that day, thinking she would see him once then forget he existed, having no idea how deeply he would worm his way into her life and her heart.

It had only taken thirty seconds to pack the few things she treasured as irreplaceable then she spent a few minutes watching him sleep, marvelling at how young he looked when she knew he was the same age - physically - as her. On the inside she felt decades older as she picked up the bag and disappeared into the night, leaving a whisper of 'I love you too' to echo through the silent room.


	2. Chapter 2

Elphaba had learned every side road, back street, and alley in the Emerald City by the time she'd been there for a year. Even though there was no chance of Fiyero waking during the night and suspecting that she had left for longer than a day or a week she took the most convoluted route away from the corn exchange automatically.

_Stupid, stupid, stupid,_ it seemed the word rang through her head with every footstep on the roughly cobbled roads. _Stupid to have stayed there after he followed me, stupid to have let him come, stupid to have let him think I cared, stupid to __**actually**__ care about him. I should have left as soon as he found me but no I was too certain that he'd lose interest, that he didn't really care, that I was just a diversion to him. And far beyond stupid to let myself __**feel**__ that way about another person again!_

Her thoughts continued to race even as she walked, not too quickly to be noticed nor too slowly to be suspicious, towards one of her cell's emergency hideouts.

_I wonder if it ever occurred to him, really, that he was not the only man who…who what? Eaten a meal with me\, bedded me, loved me? He certainly didn't seem curious even when remarking upon the fact, even when I claimed myself wed though of course I meant it to say that I am thoroughly committed to this 'cause' as he called it. Such a trivial name for the purpose of so many people's lives. Such a trivial attitude towards a purpose that far better men than him have __**died**__ for!_

Deliberately emptying her mind of any thoughts that would distress her, a trick she'd learned some years ago, she decided to take a detour to a small chapel whose confessional was always open – manned by a priest who was also a member of the resistance.

"Good evening, sir," murmured Elphaba, slipping into the confession box and feeling uncomfortable about it as she always did – religious places and ceremonies of any kind brought back the kind of memories she'd prefer not to have.

"Good evening, daughter, how may I be of assistance to you?"

"I would have you give a message to the one above us all," replied Elphaba, speaking in the code that referred to the person behind the master plan of the resistance – a plan Elphaba was only a small part of at this moment. The message would pass through a number of intermediaries before reaching the leader's ears.

"I live but to serve all the children of that one," replied the priest. "Speak, daughter, there are none here to hear your words but me."

"Among our people I am known as Fae. That person has been compromised, I can no longer be known as her."

"I am authorised to make the usual arrangements."

It was not uncommon for an agent of the resistance to be found out, though they usually didn't survive the experience, the 'usual arrangements' were the removal of any sign that the person had existed.

"A man may be looking for me, an Arjiki man. He is not to be harmed, he blundered into the secret unwittingly, but there is a spy who may still be there. The spy, as nearly as I can tell, does not know that I know who he is. Pass the word out to all of our people: the white cat is a Cat and it is working for the other side. The building is an old corn exchange on the outer east side of the city."

"Your words will be passed along," agreed the priest, it was not his place to ask questions, there would be others who would ask her for details later.

"I will be in the second red safe house for those who want to speak to me."

"May the Unnamed God bless you, daughter," said the priest by way of farewell.

"I'd much prefer it if God, if such a being exists, kept Himself firmly out of my business," muttered Elphaba, managing to slam the confessional door as she left.

The priest smiled to himself as he listened to her leave. As it happened he was not the man who usually took messages here. He was no priest at all but at least as much an atheist as the girl who called herself Fae. He therefore considered it good fortune that he had been here when she came to speak to the priest. As leader of the resistance he knew who she really was, just as he did every other member, and he thought Elphaba Thropp of Munchkinland could still be quite useful to him. He decided that he would summon those who worked directly below him in the hierarchy and let them offer opinions, just in came one of them had a better idea than his of how to make use of her skills.

The safe house Elphaba had chosen was not red, or in any other way distinguishable from the other dingy boarding houses in the area. A widow, Mrs Erevan, a short stout woman of mixed Munchkin and Gillikinese descent, ran this one along with her widowed daughter. They were timid creatures and this was the most actively they could bring themselves to aid the resistance despite the fact the oppressive regime had caused the death of both of their husbands. Naturally they both stared at the pointed green features of their latest customer before showing her to a room. At Elphaba's insistence she was given a room with a window, not that there was much of a view but the young woman wanted a second way of leaving the building rather than something to look at.

The women left quickly, Elphaba didn't bother unpacking, she locked the door behind them and stretched out on the bed – one of the lessons she had learned in the resistance was to snatch sleep whenever she could find the time.

* * *

Fiyero wasn't worried when he was woken up by the cat pawing playfully at his face and saw that Elphaba was not next to him. She often crept out before he woke up and didn't always tell him when she was going to do so. He did think it was strange that she had closed the window Malky used to get in and out of the corn exchange and assumed that was why the cat was trying to get his attention.

This was one of those rare days when Malky wished he had been born in the form of something other than a Cat because he very much wanted to roll his eyes at the stupidity of the Arjiki-Human who was trying to coax him to the window.

"I guess you don't want to go out then," muttered Fiyero, the Cat's sharp ears picking up his words easily. Resisting the urge to reveal his Animal nature Malky jumped onto a chair normally occupied by Elphaba's clean clothes and meowed loudly.

"I don't think there's any food left," decided Fiyero. "I'll see if she's kept anything here for you shall I?"

The Cat began lashing his tail back and forth in sheer frustration as the human started foraging through the cupboard. He wouldn't have bothered staying around except he though the man might be able to find the woman Malky was supposed to be keeping watch over. His instructions at this point were to simply report her activities and see if anyone worth capturing made an acquaintance with her. Everything had seemed the way it always did when he went to sleep the night before and he couldn't imagine what could have happened to startle her into leaving – if it had been anything to do with those in authority he would have been informed.

"Sorry, old son," said Fiyero, wandering back to the chair and absentmindedly patting the cat. "Looks like you'll have to go and catch yourself some mice."

Haughtily the cat turned its back on him and started washing its face.

"Ungrateful," muttered Fiyero, feeling decidedly under the weather thanks to last night's wine drinking. Had he been his normal self he would have noticed the differences in the room much sooner.

As it was he went back to bed for a while and woke up again when the midday sun struck his face through the open window. The cat was nowhere to be seen as he climbed out of bed, made a half-hearted attempt to straighten the bedding, and prepared to leave.

He was just pondering leaving a note for Elphaba telling her why he couldn't wait around all day for her when he realised there was something subtly different about the room.

All of Elphaba's personal things, down to her clean undergarments and the funny piece of glass she'd had hanging on the wall, were gone!

In a panic he rushed around checking very nook and cranny, the only things left that hadn't been there before were the crate-seats and the bedding. He couldn't believe it but he had to. She was gone. She'd left him without even saying goodbye and all because...why?

"Why?" he spoke out loud, his voice echoing through the vast emptiness of the room. "Damn it all, Elphaba, why?"

_I thought she loved me…no, I __**know**__ she loved me! How could she possibly leave me when she loved me? It couldn't possibly be because I admitted I love her could it?_

Shaking his head to stop all of this thinking he decided that the only to find out **why** was to find her and ask her, so he would do that. He'd found her once and he'd do it again, for all her bragging that she'd disappear!


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's note:** Thanks for reviews and alerts so far folks! Just a little well warning I guess, if you tilt this chapter sideways you might see some Elphaba/OC pairingness. If this offends you, don't tilt it sideways.

* * *

After seven days of staying in one room, except for trips to the necessary and to get food from the kitchen, Elphaba thought she was going to go mad if she didn't get outside soon, she couldn't believe that it was taking so long for her superiors in the resistance hierarchy to think of a solution to her report that she was being spied upon. To her it seemed like the most obvious thing in the world that she should be sent away from the Emerald City to somewhere where she could do some good without being recognised.

Finally, two weeks after her report was made, Mrs Erevan came to tell her that she had a 'gentleman caller' and asked if she would like to meet him upstairs or in the sitting room.

"What does he look like?" questioned Elphaba. She didn't think there was any way Fiyero could have found her but better safe than sorry.

"Well he's…" the woman frowned, unable to pinpoint any specifics of the man's appearance. "His hair was definitely…I'm sorry, Miss, I can't for the life of me think what he looks like – isn't that silly?"

"Is he a Winkie?" asked Elphaba, risking being specific in order to be safer in the long run.

"Now that I can answer, Miss, I am sure he was not a foreigner. Definitely of Gillikinese or Munchkinlander stock."

"In that case, show him upstairs," replied Elphaba, she was certain enough of the woman to know that she would have exchanged passwords with the man. Cautiously she opened the window enough for her to fit through and chose the chair nearest to it.

There was no way Elphaba, formerly known as Fae, could know that the resistance member making contact with her was the leader himself. Her first glimpse of him was his bare hands through a gap in the door, to show that he was unarmed, followed by the rest of him. A tall muscular man with nondescript brown hair, eyes, and clothing.

"Good evening," he said politely and Elphaba noted that even his voice was completely ordinary.

"Good evening," she responded, saying nothing else that he could use to infer any information from.

"I am here about what you told the priest about the Cat. The company have discussed you and they sent me to tell you their decision."

"How do I know you weren't just listening outside the door when I spoke to the priest," challenged Elphaba.

"Well for one thing, it was the good Father's night off and I was on the other side of that grating."

"It was not your voice I heard."

"A simple enough trick. If you accept the offer I will teach it to you."

"Then will you tell me what muck filled backwater they intend to send me to?"

"They were considering Quadling country but I spoke to the one your cell reports to and decided that your talents could be put to better use as my apprentice."

To his surprise her first response was not to ask what she'd be apprenticed as.

"How do you know you can trust me? This could all be an elaborate trap involving me turning double agent for the other side."

"A double agent wouldn't ask me that."

"Oh that happens often does it?"

"Often enough. Besides I would know if you'd approached the other side with an offer."

"Oh I see," said Elphaba, making a guess and choosing boldness as the way to deal with this quietly confident man. "_You_ are a double agent aren't you."

"If I answer that question," he replied, his hand sliding _almost_ imperceptibly towards his pocket. "I shall have to kill you."

Five years in the Emerald City had not left Elphaba without the ability to defend herself and she was confidant that she would be able to defend herself.

"You would certainly have to _try_," she replied, her knife clearing the sheath on her forearm before she finished answering. "The way I see it, if I kill you and you are a double agent working against us I'm doing everyone a favour. So I suggest you tell me the truth or else leave and I'll take myself to Quadling country."

"If I tell you who I am you might kill me before I finish," protested the man whose true name no one knew, he was certain she wouldn't succeed but if she tried he'd have to kill _her_ and she had the potential to be far too useful got him to want to do that if he could avoid it.

"Keep your hands where I can see them and I'll give you the benefit of the doubt," suggested Elphaba graciously.

"I am the Wizard's Minister for Intelligence, I hold a similar position within the resistance. Between the two positions I know just about everything of significance that is happening in Oz. Unfortunately in this case knowledge does not provide quite enough power to achieve our goals but the time is drawing nearer."

"You're being very open with someone you just met," remarked Elphaba, wondering if he intended to kill her after all - maybe he was working for the government after all. "I haven't been with the resistance for that long and I haven't done a lot, compared to others, to prove that you can trust me."

"Mattias trusted you with his life, that's good enough for me."

"Oh yes," hissed Elphaba. She reacting rather than thinking or it might have occurred to her to wonder how this man knew who she was and she was associated with the man who should have been known to the resistance only as 'Fox'. "Mattias trusted me, for all the good it did him!"

Even as he watched, wondering if he should make some conciliatory remark, she took a deep breath and regained control of herself.

"So that explains why you're trusting me with this and you're telling me that you want me to be your apprentice in what exactly? Intelligence gathering? What use could you possibly have for an apprentice?"

"It's a big job," he replied evasively. "And that is all the explanation I am going to offer for now."

"May I have some time to consider your offer? And are you aware that people will be looking for me? At least one who means no harm but may cause trouble regardless of intention and another who is a spy for the other side."

"I set the Cat to spy upon the resistance in the first place, now that you've exposed him as a spy he has no reason to continue being employed here. I shall send him to a town in Gillikin, white cats are very popular pets up there and he'll blend in well. As for the Arjiki boy, even someone as noticeable as you can be disguised – should you accept my offer I will provide such disguises when your work takes you out during the day or to places where he might be. I will also know if he leaves the city and can tell you when it is safe to go out. As to your first question you may have as much time, within reason, as you require to consider my offer. Enough time, if I may presume to guess your intentions, to leave if you decide not to accept."

"Very good," agreed Elphaba. "Are you going to tell me more or do I decide based on what you've told me so far?"

"That would depend on what else you wanted to know, I suppose."

"Nothing in particular, I just wondered if you were going to volunteer any further information."

To her surprise he actually allowed himself to smile, very briefly, at her audacity.

"I will contact you here, when I feel you've had sufficient time to consider my offer. I can't presume to know your thoughts, for a start because women remain a complete mystery to me despite my not inconsiderable skills, but I feel confident enough to say that taking my offer is a far better use for your life than the necessary but essentially insignificant tasks you have performed for us so far."

"Naturally I shall consider everything you have told me, most carefully," replied Elphaba.

"Could I prevail upon you to put the knife down as I turn my back to you to leave? I would walk out backwards but one never knows who is lurking outside a door."

Elphaba raised her eyebrows, obviously suspicious, but relented enough to put the knife on her lap rather than holding it ready in her hand.

"That will suffice I suppose."

"At some point you have to trust someone," replied Elphaba, in the tone of one who was quoting someone else.

The man declined to reply but was decidedly relived when he closed the door behind him. Despite the unpromising conversation he felt fairly certain that his offer would be accepted.

Elphaba carefully locked her door behind the man, noting with detached interest that while she was certain she would recognise him when he came here again she could not remember exactly what he looked like.

_So now comes the time to make a decision that will probably affect my entire life – for the second time in a week no less. If I believed in the Unnamed God I'd have some serious questions about His sense of humour._

It was a simple question to answer really, simpler than the decision to leave her lover and she'd made that one in a few minutes, all she had to decide was where she could best serve the cause that she still fervently believed in and the answer was definitely here as opposed to the backwaters of Oz so that would be what she told the man when he returned. That just left one more thing to be done, she had to make sure Fiyero wouldn't be looking for her for a few months. Borrowing paper and ink from the owner of the house she scribbled a quick note. Not trusting a messenger not to be caught and questioned she waited until it was dark and slipped out of the house to deliver it herself.

* * *

During the long days that Elphaba spent cooped up in her room Fiyero searched all over the city for her. He couldn't afford to hire even the cheapest help in his task and dared not ask the favour of any of his acquaintances for fear of drawing attention to Elphaba. He was all too aware of the fact that the last convoy to the west was leaving in only another week and he really couldn't afford to stay in the Emerald City over the winter when no important business would be taking place.

On the morning of the fifteenth day since Elphaba had left Fiyero went downstairs and the concierge greeted him with a folded piece of paper.

"A message left for you during the night, Your Highness."

"Thank you," said Fiyero, his breath catching slightly as he took the note and recognised his name written in familiar handwriting. "Do you know who left it?"

"It was delivered while the night clerk was otherwise occupied, he did not see anyone."

Fiyero nodded and slipped the note into his pocket then continued on his way to an important business breakfast with a Gillikinese Lord who owned a bank then there was another meeting with a trader interested in coming west and wanting advice on the best way to make it out there alive. After that a lunch meeting he'd put off twice already and couldn't possibly justify avoiding again. All in all it was midafternoon by the time he was able to retreat to his room and unfold the letter. It began with no salutation or identification of whom it was intended for

_Stop looking for me. My work takes me to Quadling country, I could not tell you before I went because I did not want you to follow me. By the time you receives this letter I will be well on my way to vanishing on to the southern swamps. Go home to your family; your children need you far more than I ever could._

There was no hint of a signature at the bottom, not even an ink spot suggesting she had considered signing it, but he knew exactly who had sent the letter.

Naturally it occurred to him to ignore her directive but it didn't take much thought to realise that she was only telling him to do what she already knew he **would**.

Of course he kept looking for her, just in case she'd been lying about going to work with the Quadlings, but when the last trade convoy of the season left he was with them going home to Kiamo Ko and his family.


End file.
